Do you ever feel guilty on Christmas morning when you see all of that pretty gift wrap torn and strewn all over the place? Ever feel the need to compulsively save it??
Well, I do. And I did. So last year I salvaged some of the “good” bits of wrapping paper, ribbons, and greeting cards, and recycled them into gift tags to use on this year’s presents!
There are two ways I used the paper… either as a background or as focal embellishments.
For the backgrounds, I decoupaged the paper using Mod Podge.
Since most wrapping paper is pretty flimsy, it makes sense to stabilize in on a base. So I die-cut some cereal boxes up and use that. (See? More recycling mania!)
I used some inks to age the edges a bit, and then added some spray mists for sparkle. When it was dry, I added some pretty lace stickers. Easy!
You can also use images from the wrapping paper (or greeting cards) to make new embellishments. If you cut them using a punch, you can “fussy cut” them to center your image.
For this version, I used pre-made Avery manilla tags, but used Glimmer Mist and Distress Stains to create the red background. After that was dry, I again used Mod Podge to affix the punched-out wrapping paper to the tags. A little “Merry Christmas” stamp & some twine was all it needed!
I bet if you look around your craft stash, you’ll find a bunch of little bits of ribbon, lace, eyelets, rhinestones, etc that are perfect to add a little “pop” to your recycled gift tags…..and then you’ll be all set for next year for NOTHING out of pocket!
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Azadeh says
Awesome! So nice also I believe that the less amount of junk that make it to the landfills, the better.
Elizabeth says
Great idea! I´m a craft enthusiastic from Chile. I´ll surely do it for Christmas.